Research On Legal Issues Of People’s Jurors’ Actual Trial

The "Decision on Several Important Issues Concerning the Administration of the Country According to Law" passed by the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18 th CPC Central Committee stated: "We must improve the people’s assessor system and gradually implement people’s jurors to no longer hear questions concerning the application of laws,and only participate in the issue of ascertaining facts." The implementation of this decision ensures that the people feel fairness and justice in every case.In May 2015,the Supreme People’s Court and the Ministry of Justice promulgated and implemented the "Implementation Measures for the People’s Assessors System Reform Pilot Project",followed by the "People’s Republic of China People’s Assessors Law." The draft was also submitted to the Thirtieth Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Twelfth National People’s Congress for deliberation on December 22,2017,and it sought opinions from the whole society on December 29,2017.This is an important milestone in the history of the development of the people’s jurors system.Two important legal documents have designed a set of systems to address the long-standing phenomenon of the people’s jurors system "accompanying and not reviewing",including the provisions of the people’s jurors’ fact review.However,the people’s jurors’ factual review only confirmed the facts of the case,and the reforms that did not vote on the application of the law still failed to address the fact that the type of case in which the people’s jurors could participate was not sufficiently detailed;The boundaries of factual issues and legal issues are unclear.Identification criteria of different types of case are not specific.The way people’s assessors identify the facts of the case and the judge’s role in determining the facts are not clear.The finality of the people’s jurors’ findings is unmarked,and the people’s assessors’ factual validity of the case’s identification is undetermined.It is unclear that the people’s assessors’ disciplinary provisions after mistakes in the facts are not in place.In the future,the perfection of the draft laws and the implementation of future laws will require finding solutions to the problems existing in fact-examination.First,the types of people’s jurors participating in trials are refined.Secondly,by distinguishing between factual issues and legal issues;determining the standards of fact determination in different types of cases;explaining how people’s jurors determine the facts of the case;standardizing the role of judges in identifying facts to improve the operation of people’s jurors in fact review.Finally,by clarifying the finality of the facts identified by the people’s jurors;determining the effectiveness of the people’s jurors finding out the facts of the case;establishing a disciplinary mechanism to make mistakes in finding facts to solve the legal consequences of fact-finding.Ultimately,enables people’s assessors to play a substantive role in determining the facts of the case,to achieve the original intention of the design of the people’s jurors system to ensure the fairness,openness,independence and credibility of the judiciary,and promote the process of judicial democratization.